


Dance Partners

by tjs_whatnot



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2013-09-29
Packaged: 2017-12-27 22:17:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/984244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tjs_whatnot/pseuds/tjs_whatnot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Is this it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dance Partners

**Author's Note:**

  * For [paranoidangel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/paranoidangel/gifts).



Remus stood at the door waiting for Sirius to notice him. When he did, Remus fell to his knees and crawled over to where Sirius sat, head bowed at the foot of the bed. Remus inhaled slow and deep as he rested his sweat-soaked head against Sirius’ chest, his blood-matted hair hiding his face. 

“Was it bad?” Remus whispered, afraid to look. 

Sirius, who still had the smell of dog on him, subtly pulled down the sleeve on his shirt so that Remus couldn’t see the gaping wound. 

“Not too bad.”

Remus rolled his head gently against Sirius. “Liar.”

Wrapping his arms tight around Remus, hiding his wince, Sirius wished he was still in his dog form. Pain was different when he was Padfoot. Easier to fix, easier to ignore. But he couldn’t feel Remus relax into his embrace when he was a dog.

“It was all manageable. We survived and we’re alive. Couldn’t ask for more, could we?” He tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice. 

Remus rested his head on Sirius’ shoulder and tried to stop shivering. He was starting to feel more human, the pain came, but so did the slowness of his breathing and the thoughts that were very much his own. He was himself again. He had survived another month.

“Our lives were supposed to be so much… more. Weren’t they?” Remus asked. He had known from an early age that he would be a werewolf forever, but there had been times, his Hogwarts times when he had believed he could be more than just a monster. Sirius had convinced him of that, James had convinced him, Peter—he closed his eyes and forced his thoughts away from Peter. The betrayal fourteen years ago was still too fresh.

“Yes. We were. I didn’t risk my life and sanity getting out of Azkaban for this. Well, for this—” he held Remus tighter, breathed him in. “But, I had such ideas, such dreams. Me, you, Harry. We could have done anything, gone anywhere…” Sirius felt his blood start to boil as he growled, “Fucking Snape.”

Remus sighed and said with little malice, “I know.”

“He ruined everything. Everything!”

Remus held Sirius tighter, digging his fingers in and massaging the tensed muscles. “Think of something else. Think about Harry. Think about the end of the war. Think about the life he’s going to have, that you’re going to have a part in. Think about the day he gets married, the words of advice you will give him--”

Sirius barked a loud laugh. “Right. I have so many great words of wisdom on love.”

Remus laughed too. “I think you might surprise yourself.”

Now it was Sirius’ turn to sigh. “All I know about love and being a good person I learned from you.”

Remus swayed, taking Sirius’ hand he slowly began to dance them around the room. “It’s been my pleasure.”

Sirius looked into Remus’ eyes, red from lack of sleep and weary from the monthly transformation and smiled. They both might still be in prison, but on the full moon when Remus is locked in the monster that his body turns into, he had Sirius beside him, comforting him, licking his wounds. And when Sirius paced the floors of the childhood home he was locked in, itchy for fresh air and adventure, when he was crawling out of his skin as his long-dead mother shouted at him all the bile and hate he’d escaped from all those years ago, he had Remus, right beside him, holding him and telling him it would all be over soon, they would be free.

And until then, they could dance.


End file.
